Corona virus: Why are there doubts about the data collected for testing for COD 19 disease in Pakistan?

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Corona virus: Why are there doubts about the data collected for testing for COD 19 disease in Pakistan? June 24 was a difficult day for the provincial capital, Lahore, according to daily statistics from Punjab, the province most affected by coronavirus deaths in Pakistan. In those 24 hours, code-19 disease claimed 55 lives in Lahore, a record so far. In the last five days before June 24, 119 people died of the corona virus in Lahore, an estimated 24 deaths per day. But when the provincial figures for June 25 came out, it was surprising that not a single death had taken place in Lahore. The BBC contacted Mayo Hospital, the largest coronavirus hospital in Lahore, for treatment. According to hospital data, there were three confirmed and five unconfirmed deaths from Code 19 on June 24, two certified and five unconfirmed deaths on June 25, and one confirmed and three unconfirmed deaths on June 26. The reason for collecting the three-day data was to allay fears that deaths after the count de...
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Budget 2020: What was good and what was bad for the people?

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Budget 2020: What was good and what was bad for the People?

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government presented its second budget. It is a common practice in Pakistan that governments throw debris at past governments to cover up their mistakes or shortcomings, but this time the government had the support of the opposition as well as Corona. The government said how badly the corona virus has affected the economy, meaning that if Pakistan did not suffer from the disease, everything would be fine, everything would be great, everything would be unique.

What is special about this budget is that the government and its supporters never see anything bad in it, while the opposition and its supporters never see anything good in it. Another major problem of this budget is that the people for whom this whole gathering has been organized do not understand anything. Everyone is asking each other, brother, tell me what happened in the end.

Goods & Bads of Budget

  • One of the three positive aspects of this budget is that the period of capital gains tax on property has been extended to 4 years and its rate has been reduced. The fact of the matter is that the real estate sector runs the whole of Pakistan. If it works, it will run 40 industries, and in the current situation, only this sector can get us out of the crisis.
  • The other positive aspect is that Rs 12 billion has been allocated for development projects in the agricultural sector. After the 18th Amendment, work in this area came to a complete halt, which also affected agricultural production. But now it is hoped that these projects will go a long way in boosting production.
  • Then Rs 81 billion has been allocated for water resources. It may be recalled that other major water projects including Mohmand Dam are underway in Pakistan. Most governments are less interested in long-term plans and want immediate returns. But the good thing about this government is that money has been allocated for these big projects.
  • In addition, the reduction of customs duty on raw materials is a major decision. There was a strange situation that there was an additional customs duty on items that did not have a customs duty, but now the government has abolished this additional customs duty, after which it is hoped that the industrial sector will flourish. ۔

On the downside, 
  • Less money has been allocated for public development projects, even though they have boosted the economy. Now that the government has set a production target of 2.1 per cent, its achievement may be affected and even 1.2 per cent will not be achieved as the government's own expenditure is very low.
  • It is government spending that drives the private sector. Measures regarding checks and traces have not been heard in sugar, cigarettes and beverages and other such industries as tax evasion has been reported in these sectors. If steps are taken in this regard, tax revenue can be increased as new taxes have not been imposed by the government.
  • The third downside is that various incentives should have been announced to encourage local Pakistanis who want to invest in new industries, as well as to accelerate the privatization process. Although this process can help a lot in economic recovery.
Second Review

No new taxes have been imposed in the budget, but the Federal Board of Revenue's (FBR) target has been increased by 25%. It seems that the FBR will not be able to achieve this goal, but the situation will not be clear until the Finance Act is passed. One thing is for sure, if the FBR's target is maintained, it is possible that some kind of secret taxes have been imposed, but over time this situation will become clear.
Secondly, now the announcement of the requirement of National Identity Card on the purchase of one lakh instead of 50 thousand is a positive step. The positive side here is that traders do business with unregistered people, now when you take someone's ID card, you have a list of unregistered people in front of you. A retailer comes to a wholesaler and buys goods worth Rs 5 lakh from him. Now if he is unregistered, the FBR will catch him. The board will say you have made a purchase of Rs. 5 lakhs, your annual turnover is about Rs. 60 lakhs, now if you have that much turnover then you are neither paying turnover tax nor your income on it. Are tax registered. This means that such people will be identified. On the other hand, the wholesaler is facing the problem that when he asks for an identity card, his customer goes to another shop. That is why the merchants were shouting for a small amount of money.

The third point is that the duty on raw materials has been abolished. That is, now that the duty on raw materials has been abolished, the prices of manufactured products will also come down, which will directly benefit the people. Similarly, in the case of exports, the advantage will be that due to the low price, we can compete with the world in the world market in a very good way.

Pensions and salaries have not been increased in this budget, even if there was no increase in salaries, at least the pension should have been increased because they have no other source of income.

The government has given relief on turnover only to the hotel industry but it should have been included in the scope of all industries that pay turnover tax.

Turnover can be understood in simple language as a set of annual sales limit in various industries, to the extent that the government collects 0.5% or even 1% tax from any industry that sells products. Now that the corona virus has severely affected the hotel industry as well as other industries, the government should have provided this relief to other industries as well.

Last year, they did very well, for example, there were many different products, including clothing, which were declared a luxury item. Duty is levied on luxury items to prevent imports. However, things get a little different, for example, you know that consumers prefer Chinese-made fabrics to locally made ones, so when the government increased the duty, all these items were imported from Afghanistan to Pakistan. They started coming through smuggling, so the FBR suffered 2 losses.

On the one hand, the imposition of regulatory duty reduced imports, which led to a reduction in taxes, and on the other hand, the stock of these items reached the market unintentionally, so this time the duty was reduced. The purpose of this reduction is to ensure that imports continue in a legal manner and that revenue continues to flow.

Very little money has been allocated for education this time, which is a negative aspect of this budget. It is also a painful process in the sense that before Imran Khan came to power, he used to talk about increasing the education budget, but this does not seem to be the case.

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